


Blindsided

by cecilantro



Series: 100 Days Of Ficlets [9]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:19:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilantro/pseuds/cecilantro
Summary: “Are we going to get our rooms, or are we sitting out here to freeze our balls off?”





	Blindsided

**Author's Note:**

> im running out of ideas. is it friday yet?  
> (General interjection: Friday is CR time for me ;p )
> 
> maybe ill do some jester/beau or something, if yall have any ideas or requests legit feel free to drop em i may or may not do em
> 
> (Like most folk tho, I don't approve of Nott Shipping so keep in mind! Otherwise, yknow, whatevs)

Molly was perched idly on the edge of the cart outside of The Leaky Tap when Caleb’s little group arrived back.    
“Hey!” Beau called to them, and Molly nodded, raising his flask of mulled wine in a greeting salute.    
The cart was sheltered from the rain between two buildings, giving Molly the opportunity to don his long, ridiculous coat again.    
“Took you a while.” He commented as they drew up alongside the cart, leaning over to look down at them better. Caleb grimaced, his gaze shooting to Jester as she climbed up into the back at Beau’s invitation, and Nott scrambled to follow. Molly offered Caleb a hand, which he took readily to haul himself up to the front section, beside the damp, stamping horses.   
“Pastries? You guys!” Jester seemed almost moved to tears, and she wrapped one arm around Beau in her own specific version of a hug. Beau chuckled at her, and Nott began pulling on her sleeve begging for tarts.   
“Well, I’m giving them away I suppose,” Jester stated sadly, when Nott succeeded on wearing her down and tucked her tarts into her pocket, “Do any of you want one? Fjord? Beau? Caleb?”   
She offered the bag out to them, and Fjord politely declined.   
“Yeah, I’ll take one.” Beau took her prize, and Jester moved to Molly as he waved,   
“I’ll have one, I’m hungry.”   
“Caleb?” Jester turned to him, and he shook his head,   
“I’m okay.” He waved his hand, “Thank you.”   
Jester turned her attentions back to Beau and Nott, Fjord leaned against the cart to listen and… do something. Molly turned over his shoulder to Caleb, who was fairly wet and shivering in the seat.   
“Are we going to get our rooms, or are we sitting out here to freeze our balls off?” he eyed Mollymauk, who gave a quick, delighted laugh at his expression.   
“No outside food I’m afraid my dear.” He patted Caleb’s shoulder, “Have some mulled wine for now.” And he offered the flask to him. Caleb eyed it warily, then took it for a swig.   
“What did you do to it?” He asked Molly, who grinned and shook his head, feigning offence,   
“Can I not help a friend to warm up in this cold weather?”   
“Not when it tastes this bad.” Caleb grimaced and closed the cap, handed it back. Molly tucked it safely into his pocket and raised an eyebrow,   
“I’m sure I can think of other,  _ better _ ways to warm you up.”   
“Hey,” Beau interrupted, and whistled at them for good measure, “I’m gonna take the cart to wherever the fuck for the night, you should, uh, you should go get rooms.” she looked over to Jester, looked her up and down for a moment, and added, “You got me tonight, yeah?”   
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Can I borrow some gold? I’m all out.” Jester cracked out her brightest grin, and Beau rolled her eyes, sighed as she handed over a gold piece.    
“Should be more than enough.” and hopped down from the cart to gather the horses by the reigns. She looked up at Mollymauk with raised eyebrows, a bored expression, “Can’t put the cart away with you and Caleb gettin’ suggestive on it, Molly.”   
“Apologies.” Molly swept the best bow he could from his sitting position and slid down from the cart, holding a hand out to Caleb to help him down, too.    
Caleb was flushed in a solid pink line from ear to ear, far more visible now that he was clean.

They made their way into The Leaky Tap, the atmosphere similar to that of the Feed ‘n’ Mead, albeit quite a bit busier, and with less hero worship than their previous inn. Fjord and Nott made a beeline for the bar for a hard drink whilst Molly, Jester, and Caleb made their way to the reservation desk.   
Halfway there, Caleb stopped, so suddenly that Jester bumped into him.   
“Walking means you move, Caleb. One foot in front of the other, you know? Did Pumat Sol clean your brain too?” She teased him gently, and Mollymauk turned as she began to speak.   
“Something wrong?”   
“No. Um. Yes, actually, I cannot- I cannot afford the room. I cleared out my reserves buying supplies for spell scribing.” Caleb sighed, and buried his face in his hands. Jester and Molly caught a quiet string of curses and insults, most in Zemnian, and most directed at himself. Jester patted his arm.   
“You can sleep in the cart! It won’t be cold, Beau’s paying for proper care!”   
“Don’t be ridiculous, Caleb, you can stay with me.” Molly crossed his arms, as though it was something he should have expected.   
“But Nott-”   
“Oh, she’s staying with Beau and I! We’re going to have a girls night and braid hair…” Jester broke into a tangent, Caleb was more amused by the idea of Nott having her hair braided. Eventually, Molly set a hand on Caleb’s shoulder, gentle, and the movement had Jester trailing off somewhere around ‘Strip Boulder Parchment Shears’   
“Don’t worry about anything.” Molly told Caleb calmly, “Get me and yourself a drink, I’ll sort the rooms.” He handed Caleb a couple of silver pieces and gave him a firm pat before catching Jester’s wrist and tugging her away to the reception desk.   
Caleb, embarrassed and flushed, did simply as he was bidden. By the time Jester and Mollymauk had returned with their room keys, Beau had plopped herself down with a flagon of some kind of ale.   
“Fjord, you’re up.” Molly tossed a key to him, “Three silver.”   
“Thanks, Molly, I owe y’.” Fjord slid the three across the table, and Molly eyed it for a moment.   
“Keep it.” He decided eventually, “It’s on me.”   
“Now I really owe y’.” Fjord answered, but took his money back anyways.   
“Caleb?” Molly asked, and Caleb pushed Molly’s drink and change across the table toward him, silent. The rest of the table looked between them, momentarily, and Beau’s inability to hold her tongue jumped in once more.   
“Did you guys fuck already? Man, I leave for ten minutes…”   
“No!” Caleb was horrified, “Mollymauk is paying for me to stay in his room, I can’t afford it myself.”   
“Ah, so later. Got it.” She winked and clicked at him, and he pressed his face into his hand, sipping his drink as best he could under his own arm.   
Nott scooted closer to Caleb and leaned in,   
“Will you be okay? You won’t have me.” she was so concerned, and she caught a glimpse of a bitter smile on Caleb’s face,   
“I’ll survive, you have a good time. I’m sure Mollymauk will take care of me.”   
“I certainly will.”   
Molly was at Caleb’s other side, silent and sudden, escaping the conversation that Jester had struck up between Fjord and Beau. Caleb started so hard he shot an inch out of his chair, thankfully escaping Beau’s usually watchful eyes.   
“Are you sure?” Nott narrowed her eyes as she leaned across a panting Caleb toward Molly, “You don’t seem to be doing a good job right now.”   
“A little fear never hurt anyone.” Molly answered smoothly, draining the last of his drink. “Anyway, Caleb, I’m heading up. Do you want the key?”   
“No, no, I’ll come now.” Caleb chugged the half of his whiskey that remained and stood from the table with Molly. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He told Nott, and let Molly take his arm and guide him up the stairs and to their room.   
“They only had double beds left.” Molly told him as he slipped the key into the lock, “Jester got the last  _ family _ room, even then, she’ll be sharing with Beau.”   
“I don’t think Beau will have an issue with that.” Caleb observed. Molly opened the door and held it for him.   
“I tend to agree. Anyway, I’ll take the floor, you can have the bed-”   
“No.” Caleb told him firmly, slipping past to let him close the door, “You are paying for the room, you should take the bed.”   
Molly scrutinised him for a moment.   
“Not to be cliché,” he told him, slowly, walking past him and slipping his coat from his shoulders, “and you know how much I love originality, Caleb.”    
Caleb saw a flash of the peacock tattoo that curled up his face.   
“But we could just… share. It’s not important.”   
“If I have a nightmare, or panic-” Caleb started, and Molly turned with a flourish to stride up to him,   
“Then I’m there. Even better!” He was so close. Caleb swallowed two, three times before he could talk, a strained whisper,   
“I don’t wish to bother you.”   
Molly sighed and bundled him into a hug.   
“Caleb, dear, I love you.” Molly confessed, quietly, “You can never bother me.”   
Caleb let himself be held, leaning into Molly’s warmth and security and comfort. After a few minutes, he pulled back, and Molly withdrew.   
“Ready to sleep?” he asked, and Caleb, with a shaky sigh, nodded.   
The two stripped down to their underclothes. Molly folded his coat and put it carefully at one side of the room beside his boots, carefully wrapped and placed his scimitars, and piled the rest of his clothes messily beside them.   
Caleb stripped from top to bottom, and his numb, drunk fingers messed clumsily with the buckles on his boots and book holster.   
“Let me.” Molly sat beside him, poised, waiting for permission. Caleb nodded, and the tiefling dove into his task, working the metal catches free until Caleb could kick off his boots and lower his books carefully to the floor. Molly let him free, crawled across the bed until he could climb under the covers and watch Caleb blow out the lights, fingertips to the edge of the bed so that he could feel his way back in the dark. Molly could see with perfect clarity.   
“You should have let me.” He told Caleb as the bed dipped and Caleb shuffled under the covers. Caleb gave a breath of a laugh, but no reply, and Molly watched him snuggle down and close his eyes. And then a little longer. It was when he thought Caleb was asleep that the wizard opened his eyes again, and although he couldn’t see his tiefling in the dark, he stared at roughly the place he thought he would be.   
Molly’s heart was struck at his eyes. Even in the shades of grey his night vision gave, they were beautiful.   
“Molly?”   
“Hm?”   
A pause. “I love you, too.”   
Molly shuffled closer to him across the bed, and Caleb felt his hand drift and wander up Caleb’s waist, arms, neck, to rest gently against his cheek. And then Molly kissed him, softly, an instant that stretched forever. And he pulled back with an affectionate, invisible smile.   
“I’m going nowhere. Go to sleep.”    
Caleb closed his eyes.


End file.
